(ANSA) – BOLOGNA, FEBRUARY 20 – “When I hug my players, everyone thinks they need that hug, but in the end the truth is that I need it.
And it’s the same with my daughter: I hug her because I think she needs it, instead I realized that I need it more”. Thus, Gianmarco Pozzecco, coach of the men’s national basketball team, in one afternoon without holding back the emotions of a new father, in Bologna, during the press conference to present the partnership between Macron and Fip, for the new shirts of the blue teams.
“I feel that the responsibility I have is to make sure that others are well, whether it’s my player or my daughter, it’s a question of altruism which is indispensable when you choose to be a coach or a father” .
Pozzecco and his wife became parents of little Gala a few days ago and this week the coach and the Azzurri will be busy in Livorno for the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on February 23, then in Caceres on the 26th against Spain.
“I would like to be recognized for wanting to revive our profession in a more romantic way, before the advent of economic interests different from those of the past – he confides – I was born into a family where my father played and I perceived that he enjoyed with his team mates, then when he coached his boys would come to our house for dinner – recalls Pozzecco – And I like to think that I can rebuild something similar to a family in a basketball team; now I have a family, and I notice some similarities”.
Then he quotes from Vito Mancuso’s book “The courage to be free”: “He tells us that we are forced to wear a mask every time depending on the context, as a father, as a brother, as a friend, as a coach… and that it is us only when we are alone.”The truth – continues Pozzecco – is that I am myself when I am with these guys and with my family, I am free and happy in that moment there”.(ANSA).
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